


Work In Progress

by Setting_Out_Stars



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Characters Writing Fanfiction, Gen, Yuta is a fanfic author, and Donghyuck is a fan, that's all there is to it really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 12:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25849375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setting_Out_Stars/pseuds/Setting_Out_Stars
Summary: There are certain scenarios that are plausible in fiction that aren’t in real life; having your friend’s younger brother tell you that he enjoys reading all the nasty ass porn you write about K-pop idols is one of them.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Nakamoto Yuta
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20
Collections: Yuta Fic Fest 2019-2020





	Work In Progress

**Author's Note:**

> ☆ **Side pairings:** Taeyong/Mark (they are Yuta's otp lol) and Johnny/Taeil.
> 
> ☆ I feel like I should add a little **Disclaimer** to avoid unintentionally offending and/or upsetting someone so here goes: Topics discussed in this fic are my own observations made over the course of the many years that I have been writing fiction and have been a part of fandom life in general. I am well aware that toxic fans are everywhere and are not limited to certain ships but the reason I talk about obsessive, crazy shippers of popular pairs specifically is simply because they are the ones that are larger in number and hence, always more visible. Another thing I would like to say is that I do not mean to differentiate between popular/rare pairs and neither am I trying to claim that one is better than the other. There is no "good" or "bad" ship, because taste is subjective. There are just bad shippers. As long as you ship in a healthy manner everything and anything goes. That's all :)
> 
> ☆ Many thanks to the Mods for hosting this fest and also for giving me the chance to see this through to the end ❤️
> 
> ☆ I have edited this to the best of my abilities but it's possible I may have missed something so please excuse me.
> 
> ☆ I hope you enjoy (and can maybe relate) to Yuta's woes of being a fanfic writer.

Normally, Yuta isn’t one to procrastinate; if he needs to get shit done he damn well does it because why wait for tomorrow when he has today? However, as of late, it seems like that philosophy applies to everything in his life _but_ writing.

It’s like every time he so much as _thinks_ of writing he suddenly has ten other things that he’d rather be doing. Like cleaning his room, or taking out the trash, or maybe even doing his laundry; which is something Yuta likes to save for very _special_ occasions only – he’s a college student, okay? He has other, better things to do.

But even on those few occasions where Yuta does make it further than just _thinking_ about writing and manages to open up his laptop and pull up the most recent draft that he’s supposed to be working on, he just – _blanks_. Straight up goes “ _no thoughts, head empty_ ” as he stares at the blinking cursor, watching it taunt him and mock his entire existence. His friend, and beta, on Twitter had told him that it was probably just writer’s block and that it was normal but Yuta’s certain that it isn’t _just_ writer’s block. 

No, this is something far more sinister. 

Maybe this was punishment for all the times he joked about selling his soul to Satan just to finish his work on time. And maybe Satan was just waiting to collect his debt and Yuta wouldn’t be able to physically write until the Devil took his soul to hell (where it most likely belonged). Or maybe it’s not even that. Whatever it is though, Yuta needs to find a solution and he needs to find one quick.

At this point he’s tried everything he could think of to help with his predicament, even taking his beta’s suggestion of “word vomiting”: opening up a blank word document and typing out whatever came to mind without trying to make much sense of it or bother about correct grammar and proper sentence structure. That didn’t do much good though because all Yuta managed to write was a meager 100 words before he ran out of steam.

As a final act of desperation, Yuta had to resort to Tumblr to read self-insert fanfiction in the hopes that he would gain some _inspiration_ from it but that didn’t help either because Yuta just ended up spending hours on that damned website seemingly scrolling through the same ten ‘reactions’ over and over again. Because reading about his current idol crush pushing some blonde haired, blue-eyed Y/N up against a wall was definitely far more entertaining than having to sit down and write his own monstrosity of a fanfic.

Oh, that’s right. Yuta writes fanfiction.

Not the self-insert kind – even though he most certainly does not have a problem with those who do, it’s just not his thing – but the _slash_ kind. The kind where he throws two of his favourite celebrities, or fictional characters, into every possible unrealistic scenario that he can conceive of together. Oh and then he makes them fuck because why not? No work of fiction written by him would ever be complete without some good ol’ horizontal tango between two ridiculously hot dudes.

_The point is_ – Yuta wouldn’t consider himself a procrastinator but with writing it’s somehow different and this past month has been very difficult for him.

All he’s been able to churn out are short pieces of badly written porn with little to no plot at all. Which is a disgrace for someone like him because there was a point in time where Yuta used to be able to write 30,000 words in under a month, but now all he can manage to write is a 2000-word long work of fiction about a dude getting diddled by tentacles of all things and even _that_ takes him a good week or so.

But at least he can still write porn, no matter if he does it at a snail’s pace.

What Yuta actually seems to be struggling with is writing the next chapter for _Mad City_ ; a multi-chaptered, post-apocalyptic zombie filled thriller that he poured his heart and soul into. The one fanfic which just so happens to be his most popular work on Archive of Our Own (or AO3, as it’s more commonly known). 

Yuta started working on the draft for Mad City in mid-2019 and managed to post the first chapter somewhere around October of the same year. Was it an instant ‘hit’? No, of course not. Yuta was new to the SuperM fandom back then and he also used to (and still does, in fact) write for lesser known pairings. It’s something he’s always preferred because shipping ‘rare-pairs’ – pairings that aren’t as popular or well liked in the fandom as some of the others – meant interacting with a lower number of rabid fans that loved to force their ‘popular’ pairing down other peoples’ throats all while harassing family members and friends of the poor unfortunate souls that they happened to be shipping together. 

Yuta absolutely despises how obnoxious and annoying and downright _obsessive_ they can get about something that is ultimately supposed to be for fun; unable to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Not to mention how disgustingly fetishistic some of them are. Yuta would probably be the last person to police someone on the type of things they enjoy, but being queer himself, it makes him extremely uncomfortable to witness how some of these fans could push the idea that their _ship_ is _real_ while still being hateful towards other queer fans within the fandom itself.

That’s one of the main reasons Yuta avoids the more popular and visible pairings within a fandom and steers towards the less popular ones. Was it silly of him to automatically dislike every popular pairing he came across? _Probably_. Yuta knows that not every person that likes a particular ship is toxic; there are just a few rotten apples that give the others a bad rap. But it is what it is and at this point Yuta just considers it an involuntary defense mechanism to keep himself away from all the bullshit.

And besides, he would rather suffer through the agony of not seeing his favourite gay boys interact in public than have to read essay upon essay about how two dudes were in a secret, long-term relationship because they happened to be using phones from the same brand. _Not like a million other people also used phones from the same brand or anything_.

Excessive delusions aside however, Yuta does sometimes find himself wishing that he could overlook all the tomfoolery, join in on the fun and ship a popular pairing just for the heck of it. At least that way he’d have an abundance of content to consume _and_ have more visibility, hence meaning more people would read his stuff. But then he also thinks of all the cons of having more people read his mediocre fics – unwarranted “constructive” criticism being just one of them – and it puts him off. 

Besides, Yuta’s pretty content in his own little bubble; safe from most of the problematic stuff that tends to plague content creators in general. So what if his _OTP_ , his ‘ _one true pairing_ ’, interact once in a blue moon? Yuta’s made of tough stuff, he’s a veteran rare–pair enthusiast, he can handle a little drought – so to speak.

It’s not like he writes solely for the attention anyways (no writer ever does); most of it is to satisfy his own niche desires, even though Yuta will admit that it’s always nice to receive kudos and positive comments, and just, appreciation in general for putting his time and effort into writing cliché fanfics.

Which brings him back to the topic of Mad City – his pride and joy that has also, somehow, turned into the bane of his existence.

Mad City may not have been as popular when Yuta initially published it, but it gradually gained traction thanks to Yuta’s consistent updates and it seemed to be doing relatively well now; racking up almost 15000 _hits_ and over 1200 _kudos_. Yuta doesn’t even bother keeping track of all the supportive comments he receives nor does he bother noting the number of people that have bookmarked his proudest creation so far (he’s not arrogant, there’s just a lot and he can be a bit of an airhead sometimes). He even has people on Twitter – on his fan account of course, not his local one – sliding into his DM’s just to let him know that they love his work, which is definitely something that he’s never experienced in the six years that he’s been publishing fiction online.

And that isn’t even the best part! 

The real reason why Yuta is so proud of Mad City and why he, in his own personal opinion, considers it to be his most “famous” piece of written fiction is the fact that he has actual artists on Twitter making gorgeous artwork inspired by his fanfic. Which is something he didn’t think he’d ever have the honour of experiencing because really, Yuta is an honest man and he _knows_ no one would be inspired to make fan art after reading his plotless porn fics. And yet he gets to see his words brought to life in vivid detail and intricate brush strokes because some kind soul – a very _talented_ kind soul – decided that they liked his fic enough to create art work for it. It’s a pretty big deal for Yuta, receiving private DM’s on Twitter filled with kind words and having people make fan art for his fic. 

Which also may be the exact reason why Yuta can’t seem to finish writing the latest draft for Mad City: he has performance anxiety. There’s just too much pressure on his well-built, athletic shoulders.

However, not working on Mad City isn’t an option either because Yuta loves this one fic of his like he’s never loved any other; it’s his baby and he’s spent many sleepless nights working on the seventeen chapters that he’s already posted so far. He also can’t think of abandoning it because he has a point to prove. Just because SuperM may be a big deal, doesn’t mean that Yuta’s _OTP_ are any kind of popular (so he writes out of spite sometimes, _sue him_ ) and Yuta is one of the few dedicated _markyong_ – the abbreviation of Mark and Taeyong, who just so happen to be Yuta’s _ultimate_ biases, not that he doesn’t love all seven members of SuperM of course – “shippers” and also the only author who posts markyong content almost regularly. As mediocre as they may be.

So, yeah. Yuta can’t give up because he has an audience to cater to, metaphorical children to feed and markyong antis to stick it to. He just wants the “mom Taeyong” rhetoric to _die_ already; Taeyong doesn’t go around calling Mark stuff like _hot_ and _sexy_ just for people to call them “mother and son”. And, honestly? Yuta would still find weird even if he didn’t write fanfics about them fucking each other’s brains out but that’s a story for another day.

The life of a rare-pair author is tough, Yuta will admit.

Which is the exact reason why he’s currently in the library sitting at one of the tables in the far corner, busy glaring at the word document he has open on his laptop because he _just_. _Can’t. Write._

Yuta’s been here for half an hour now and all he’s managed to do is type out three sentences, then delete all of it and then write it again. Only to delete it yet again after a few minutes of staring at the screen. He’s close to ripping his own hair out; sighing in annoyance every time some poor student so much as flips a page because the _noise_ distracts him. The only reason he’s still here at the library is because of the free Wi-Fi or else Yuta would have tried to work on his draft from the comfort of his own dorm room – which basically means that he would’ve spent another afternoon procrastinating – but, well, he’s a broke college student so he can’t afford that kind of luxury.

Maybe Yuta should just start taking commissions like his beta Doyoung suggested, earn some cash to keep him going through these difficult times. Then again, that feels like too big of a commitment and Yuta can barely even type out a coherent sentence at this point in time. Working under pressure definitely wouldn’t do him any good; it would probably just upset him further. So unfortunately he couldn’t entertain the idea of taking commissions until he managed to complete _and_ post chapter eighteen of his most recent headache.

It’s not that he hates Mad City, but there’s just something about wanting to work on a fic but not being able to that really _frustrates_ him.

Yuta slumps back in his chair with a heavy sigh, switching tabs until he has his AO3 dashboard up on the screen in front of him. He clicks on his _Inbox_ , deciding on finally replying to the new comments that have piled up over the last couple of days. Most of them are comments that were left on Mad City, all a variation of the same old “ _please update soon_ ” so Yuta skips those for now, a cloud of darkness settling over his head because it’s not like he isn’t _trying_. He could be taking a well-deserved nap right about now but here he is; in the library on a Friday afternoon fighting with his own tired brain to try and string together sentences that actually make sense.

Grumbling to himself, Yuta picks another comment to reply to, one that was left on an older fic of his. And it’s just as he’s typing out his reply that he feels a tentative tap on his shoulder, followed by a timid, “ _Excuse me_?”

Yuta startles.

He flinches so hard he knocks his knee against the underside of the table, just barely managing to bite back an undignified squeak. His eyes widen in horror and, in his panicked haze, he slams his laptop shut a little harder than necessary, regretting it immediately after.

The voice calling out to him had been soft and unassuming enough but there’s really no way for him to tell if they actually saw what he was doing before he smashed his laptop shut. And that thought is a troubling one because Yuta isn’t about to let anyone in this damned place know that he writes gay fanfiction about K-Pop idols. Not that he thinks what he does is ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ of course – he’s proud of his work – but it’s just not a conversation he’s willing to have with _anybody_ apart from his beta and he’s a friend that Yuta made online, so.

Yuta takes a deep breath, attempting to calm his nerves, before he whirls around to glare at whoever it was that interrupted him while he was trying his best to be productive, only to come face to face with someone that he _knows_.

Yuta can feel the exact moment his heart stops beating and drops into his stomach and he’s certain that if he wasn’t sitting, his heart would’ve fallen right out of his ass. Figuratively, of course.

“ _Donghyuck_!?” Yuta doesn’t mean to sound so aggressive but Donghyuck looks a little too shocked to notice anyways, gawking at Yuta as he sits frozen in his chair.

This is definitely worse than some random student finding out that Yuta writes fanfics – _way_ worse – because now Yuta has to explain the fact that he writes porn on the internet to his friend’s little brother and do it in such a way where the kid doesn’t judge him for it and think that he’s weird. Which see, if it had to be anyone else Yuta wouldn’t care but he _knows_ Donghyuck and he knows his brother Taeil and just, yeah. _No_.

Donghyuck stares at Yuta for a few seconds, mouth opening and closing like a fish and Yuta narrows his eyes at him, palms growing sweaty with how anxious he suddenly feels because he has no way of knowing what Donghyuck _saw_ but he also doesn’t want to bite the bullet and just ask him outright.

“Yuta hyung?” Donghyuck squeaks after a few seconds of just blinking owlishly at him. He drags his chair closer to Yuta, eyes gleaming in a way that can only mean bad things, and leans into Yuta’s personal space until he’s forced to lean away.

“You’re the author of _Mad City_?” Donghyuck flails his hands excitedly, a manic smile spreading across his face. “You’re _Mountain_Man_?!”

_Uh-oh_.

Yuta feels as though someone just dumped a bucket of ice water on him when Donghyuck mentions his unfortunate AO3 username that he’s had since he first joined the site back in 2014. He whips his head around to check if anyone overheard Donghyuck but there aren’t many students around and the few that are present seem to be too busy with their own work to pay any attention to them. _Small miracles_.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” is Yuta’s instantaneous response – his first instinct being to _deny_ any and everything. He slouches in his seat, sniffing indignantly as he stares at Donghyuck. There’s no escaping this conversation, he supposes, but he can always try to play dumb.

Although, judging by the pointed stare Donghyuck is giving him, Yuta doesn’t think his tactic is working very well.

“I know what I saw, hyung,” Donghyuck dismisses with a wave of his hands. Yuta is tempted to challenge him further but he doesn’t. “And what I saw was your AO3 account: _Mountain_Man_. I know how that site works and what it looks like so I know that that’s your account, don’t even _try_ denying it.”

“Just–” Yuta mumbles, sighing in defeat at the smug smile Donghyuck gives him. He sinks further into his chair, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. “Keep your voice down. I don’t want anybody else here to know, okay?”

“Right. Okay,” Donghyuck whispers, eyes darting around before his excited gaze lands on Yuta again. He makes a weird expression as he stomps his feet, flailing his hands almost like he can’t contain himself and Yuta watches it all with raised eyebrows and poorly concealed amusement. Well so far Donghyuck’s reactions were definitely positive, which is something Yuta wasn’t expecting at all. He hopes that doesn’t change anytime soon.

“I’m so excited, oh my God!” Donghyuck squeals again, hands curled into little fists. “Yuta hyung, you have no idea how much I _love_ your stuff. I read almost all of it twice! And, and– I’ve even– I even follow you on Twitter.”

Yuta blinks once. Twice. Stares at Donghyuck blankly because _that_ is something he wasn’t expecting to hear.

“You… read my fics.”

“Yes!”

“And you follow me on Twitter?”

“That’s what I just said, hyung.”

Yuta grimaces.

_God_ , his Twitter is full of nasty stuff; tweets about how he’d very much like Taeyong to do unspeakable things to him (or the other way around, Yuta isn't picky), little snippets of the smut fics he’s writing, indecent images that he slips into mood boards here and there – and dicks, so many erect dicks – and to think that poor, _innocent_ Donghyuck has probably seen all of that. _Wait_ –

Yuta sits up straight as realization finally dawns on him (he’s getting slow in his old age, _okay_?).

“What do you _mean_ you read my stuff!?” Yuta panics. He reaches for Donghyuck, grabbing onto him by his shoulders and shaking him aggressively. “You’re not supposed to read stuff like that, Hyuckie. It’s porn! And you’re a– a _baby._ ”

Donghyuck gives him a baleful look and Yuta expects to be sassed, braces for it even, but instead Donghyuck just shrugs his hands off of his shoulders and huffs. 

“I’m twenty, hyung,” he deadpans, rolling his eyes. “I _know_ stuff. And besides, if you’ve ever had to hear your older brother having–” he shudders, face scrunching up in disgust, much to Yuta’s amusement “– _sex_ with one of your seniors it kind of ruins your innocence. I’m scarred for life, Yuta hyung. I don’t think reading some porn on the internet is going to change anything.”

Now it’s Yuta’s turn to roll his eyes at Donghyuck, even if he does agree with him; being forced to hear Taeil and Johnny – who just so happened to be Yuta’s roommate – fuck was definitely an unpleasant experience so he sympathizes with the kid on that front.

“ _Dramatic kid_ ,” Yuta teases, finally allowing himself to relax because well, what else can he do? The cat’s already out of the bag anyways and Donghyuck doesn’t seem to think he’s weird so Yuta sees no point in beating himself up over something that he can’t change. And besides, Donghyuck may know that Yuta writes fanfiction but now Yuta also knows that Donghyuck _reads_ fanfiction so that levels out the playing field if anything. 

“Why were you being nosy anyways?” Yuta asks softly, narrowing his eyes at the boy in front of him as he crosses his arms over his chest. Donghyuck doesn’t even have it in him to look apologetic.

“Was bored,” he shrugs, tucking his hands under his thighs while he swings his feet back and forth, looking every bit like the innocent angel that Yuta knows he isn’t. “So I decided to just look around and well, like I said, I recognized the AO3 website so I got curious and–” he gestures between the both of them, “– _this_ happened.”

_This_ being something that Yuta didn’t think would ever happen at all.

Yuta would like to consider himself a realistic person. Scratch that, he _is_ a realistic person. If Yuta went into a café it was only to get his fix of caffeine and most definitely not to flirt with the barista who worked there who looked just about _done_ with everything in life. If Yuta bumped into someone in the hallways while he was rushing to a class he was already late for, he would probably throw hands, _no lie_. Screw all that love at first sight bullshit.

There are certain scenarios that are plausible in fiction that aren’t in real life; having your friend’s younger brother tell you that he reads all the nasty ass porn you write about K-pop idols – who probably wouldn’t even consider each other as potential romantic interests on a good day – and that he _enjoys_ reading said nasty ass porn is one of those scenarios. One that Yuta didn’t _consider_ a possibility, not even in the wildest of his dreams and his dreams are pretty damn wild.

Yuta doesn’t think he’d even write a fic with a clichéd plot like that – and he’s written about _tentacles_ – and yet here he is, considering Donghyuck with narrowed eyes while the kid looks unfazed, staring at Yuta like he didn’t just trigger a quarter-life crisis for him. Yuta doesn’t know what else to say to Donghyuck because this is a scenario that he didn’t think he’d ever find himself in; stuff like this _just doesn’t happen._ He settles for staring at Donghyuck in silence until the younger boy decides to speak up again.

“So, Yuta hyung,” Donghyuck drawls, scooting his chair a little closer to Yuta as subtly as he can manage. “Were you writing something?”

“I was trying to but...” Yuta’s shoulders sag in defeat as he sighs exaggeratedly. He doesn’t pout but it’s a near thing. “I can’t.”

“You can’t… _write_?” Donghyuck looks like he’s having a hard time grasping the concept that writing could be difficult, tilting his head to the side like a puppy as he furrows his eyebrows. Yuta could roll his eyes and give him a scathing reply, _he could_ , but Donghyuck looks genuinely confused so Yuta bites his tongue.

He thinks about explaining to Donghyuck that writing isn’t as simple as just opening up a blank document and typing out a concise 5000-word story in one go, complete with perfect grammar and everything. He wants to tell him that there’s a lot more to it than that – that trying to convey ideas through coherent sentences as opposed to just typing them out in the same jumbled sequence that they popped up in in one’s head was a struggle – but Yuta doesn’t have the energy to have that conversation now so he leaves it for another day.

“I was trying to work on chapter eighteen of Mad City,” Yuta confesses instead, looking over at Donghyuck out of the corner of his eyes to gauge his reaction. “But I think I’ve been cursed with writer’s block.”

Donghyuck perks up at the mention of Mad City, eyes widening in excitement as he stomps his feet against the floor, looking like a kid on Christmas morning. Yuta tries to act indifferent, he really does, but he can't deny that Donghyuck's reactions seem to be having a positive effect on him.

“Can you show me?” Donghyuck scoots his chair closer until he’s right beside Yuta, clasping his hands together in front of him as he begs, lips pulled into an exaggerated pout. “ _Please_.”

It’s the same expression Yuta’s seen Donghyuck use many times before, mostly on Taeil and Johnny whenever he wants something from them, and judging by how he always seems to get his way Yuta knows that even if he tried to put up a fight he wouldn’t stand a chance.

He narrows his eyes at Donghyuck, considers him as goes over the pros and cons of letting Donghyuck take a look at his draft – not like Yuta has much to show anyways – but he gives in eventually, deciding that it should be okay since the kid confessed to having read Yuta's other fics already. What good would Yuta’s lame attempt at damage control do now?

“Okay,” he shrugs, turning away from Donghyuck as the younger boy latches onto his arm, mumbling a constant stream of _thank yous_ as Yuta opens up his laptop. He tries to shake him off but the kid’s basically clinging onto him like a Koala so Yuta leaves him be, focusing instead on how foreign it feels for him to be showing his unfinished work to someone other than Doyoung.

When Yuta’s laptop finally reboots he opens up his word document for Donghyuck to read through what little he has so far. Which is basically just a paragraph of Yuta waxing poetic about Taeyong – written from Mark’s point of view of course.

“Huh,” Donghyuck bites on the inside of his cheeks and Yuta can tell he’s trying his best to be polite. “You really weren’t kidding when you said you had writer’s block. Is this all you have?”

“Yes,” Yuta isn’t proud to admit it but, it is what it is.

“Well, maybe you could,” Donghyuck frees up one hand, gestures vaguely. He looks determined as he tries to come up with something that could help Yuta, even though Yuta doesn't remember asking (Donghyuck's been nothing but kind so far though, so Yuta indulges him). “The last chapter ended with them leaving their current base because of a shortage of supplies, right?”

Yuta can’t even remember if that’s what happened – he hasn't read through Mad City in a while – but he nods anyway, listening attentively to what Donghyuck has to say.

“So, like,” he shrugs, “make them run into some zombies or something.”

Donghyuck waits for a few seconds for a reaction of some kind, but when Yuta says nothing, he clears his throat and continues.

“You could add some smut too,” Donghyuck mumbles, dropping his head onto Yuta’s shoulder almost like he’s unsure of himself. “I feel like smut always solves everything. Especially the smut you write. You're an amazing writer, Yuta hyung.”

Yuta chuckles, his chest puffing up a little at the praise. He opens his mouth to thank Donghyuck but he abruptly stops himself, a light bulb going off in his head because that’s _it_! Donghyuck is right. All Yuta has to do is create some conflict and then resolve it with kinky, makeup sex. Yes. That’s exactly it. Perfect! 

“Hyuckie, you’re a genius,” Yuta tells him, bringing up his hand to pat him softly on his cheeks. He feels Donghyuck shift, tilting his head up just enough so that he’s staring at Yuta with a confused frown, his head almost slipping off Yuta’s shoulder. 

“Uh, thank you?” He mumbles, fingers coming up to push Yuta’s hand away from his face. “What did I do though?”

“You just solved my biggest problem for me,” Yuta sighs, cracking his knuckles before he slides his laptop closer to him. He _knows_ Donghyuck has more questions for him but as soon as he opens his mouth, Yuta shushes him gently, making him let out an indignant whine that Yuta can only laugh at. 

**_[Scene - 1]_** Yuta types on his document, humming softly when Donghyuck breathes out an “ _ohhhh_ ” in response, realization finally dawning on him.

Yuta hesitates for a few seconds, a little self-conscious because the only person who gets to see the bare-bones version of all of his drafts is Doyoung, but he figures that since Donghyuck was the person who jump started his brain he should at least let him watch the process that goes into creating his fics. Not like Yuta’s going to do much anyways. Not yet at least; this is just his initial stage of drafting.

Yuta takes a breath and starts typing whatever comes to mind.

_Make them fight. Let it be for some dramatic reason. Maybe Taeyong was trying to be a self-sacrificial idiot again and nearly got himself killed and Mark got mad._

“Seems about right,” Donghyuck mumbles, his cheek squished against Yuta’s arm, eyes glued to his laptop. “So far that’s pretty much what his character’s been like: the hot dude with a hero complex. Although I don’t know what Mark’s problem is? I mean, who wouldn’t want Taeyong chopping up zombies for them like some dystopian Prince Charming?”

Donghyuck sighs dreamily and Yuta laughs, shaking his head in amusement as he nudges him away only for Donghyuck to latch onto Yuta again, one hand curling around his arm.

“I agree,” Yuta says, “but Mark is angry because he doesn’t want to be the reason why Taeyong gets hurt. Because he loves him. Oh and he's also mad because he doesn’t want to seem like a weakling.”

“Huh," Donghyuck blinks. "I didn’t think of it like that.”

Yuta wouldn't have either but he has a different way of perceiving things now thanks to all the YA movies he's watched over the years. 

“What happens next?” Donghyuck urges, absentmindedly swinging his feet back and forth.

Yuta has half a mind to shrug him off again but he knows that this is just how Donghyuck is; Yuta’s seen him clinging onto Taeil and Johnny before so he knows that no matter how many times he pushes the kid away he’ll probably glue himself back to Yuta’s side like a leech. And besides, Yuta doesn’t really mind the company (or the clinginess). It’s nice; not being alone while he struggles to write. 

“ _Mark and Taeyong go their separate ways_ ,” Yuta says out loud while he types the same thing out. He considers what he has so far, wonders if there's anything else he could add to make it better, but he comes up blank so he decides to just leave the first half of his draft at that and move on. 

“ _No_ ,” Donghyuck whines, shaking Yuta's arm. “Why are you separating them? What if one of them dies? Or what if Mark gets hurt and Taeyong ends up blaming himself for it?”

“You know what…” Yuta mumbles, actually liking that idea. He taps away at his keyboard again, _Mark gets hurt while fighting off some zombies_ being the newest sentence to pop up on his screen as he types. Yuta thinks that the 'makeup' would only be sweeter if it were preceded by a good dose of heavy angst. Or so he hopes at least. That’s still left to be seen; Yuta doesn't want to get ahead of himself just yet.

Apparently Donghyuck doesn't seem to like the idea of more angst because he starts whining again, making Yuta snort. 

“You’re evil,” Donghyuck complains. “I can’t believe you would hurt them like that.”

“Relax, Hyuckie," Yuta consoles him. "They get back together in the end. Now be quiet for a bit and let me just type the rest of it, okay?” 

Which, isn’t much at all really.

Yuta types out **_[Scene - 2]_** in bold italics and under it he adds; _Taeyong realises his mistake and tries to look for Mark_. And then he follows it up with a **_[Scene - 3]_** under which he simply types; _Reconciliation. Makeup sex._

“Is that all?” Donghyuck asks when Yuta makes no move to add anything else. He leans forward curiously to inspect the words on the screen, almost as if by staring hard enough he could magically conjure up an entire fic. 

“For now, yeah,” Yuta sighs. It isn’t much, he’ll admit, but it’s more than what he had before. At least now he has some _direction_ ; has a general idea of what he wants from this draft.

“I’ll keep adding on to it every time I think of something," he says. "Like some random dialogue. Or a prose heavy paragraph. Just little snippets here and there until I have enough to start piecing the whole thing together.” 

“So this is like a blueprint?” 

“A blueprint,” Yuta hums, he didn't really think of it like that; wonders if this half-assed draft can even be called a blueprint. “Sure. I guess so.”

"So this is how you start all of your fics?" Donghyuck finally pulls away to stare at him, making Yuta miss his warmth. "Just type random bits and pieces until you can make sense of it?"

"It's how I do it, yeah," Yuta nods. He chances a glance at his watch, takes note of how late it is before he stretches his arms over his head, feeling like he accomplished _something_ today. _Finally_. And he owes it all to Donghyuck.

"Are you done for the day?" Yuta asks him. "Or do you have classes still?"

"Nah, I'm done," Donghyuck stretches his legs out, followed by his arms, yawning loudly until Yuta makes a face and swats at his arms. 

“C’mon then. Let me buy you a coffee,” Yuta offers. “My treat.”

_As a thank you for helping me_ , Yuta wants to say but he can't bring himself to. 

“I don’t like coffee,” Donghyuck says as he scrunches up his nose but he still gets up to put his things away, humming to himself as he does so. 

“Fine,” Yuta acquiesces with a sigh, packing his own things into his bag. “Let’s get ice cream then.” 

“Okay!” Donghyuck agrees cheerfully, hands moving a lot faster than they were before. “Thanks Yuta hyung, you’re the best.” 

_Hardly_ , Yuta thinks. He smiles nonetheless, standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder as he waits for Donghyuck to do the same.

“Let’s go,” Donghyuck says once he has his own bag over his shoulders, turning around and immediately latching himself onto Yuta’s arm again as they make their way out of the library. Yuta rolls his eyes but he lets him be, listening to Donghyuck as he starts to ramble about all of his favourite scenes from Mad City with a little smile on his face.

Having Donghyuck find out that he wrote fanfiction was probably not something that Yuta expected would happen, _ever_ , but in the face of Donghyuck’s enthusiasm and praise – which Yuta will admit he likes very much – he finds that he doesn’t really mind it all that much.

**Author's Note:**

> My mental health has been at an all time low so finishing this was a struggle but I'm so glad I made it! This was fun, if exhausting, to write. Certainly wish I could have done more but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Thank you for reading ❤️


End file.
